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The Russian government threw its weight around in its own country and is cutting off Russian LGBT rights so now they are trying to do the same with other countries it associates with. Well, I hope that the UK government grows a backbone and stands up to them.

I suggest you first read the document PinkNews is basing their story on before saying such stupid things and spewing hate. Nobody is trying to deprive you of any rights. Also it’s not a state statement. The embassy has received complaints and is warning the parents to carefully choose the organisations in Russia that manage their kids’ trip abroad. Some of those organisations are deemed not trustworthy, don’t do their job well, don’t give the parents full information about the families the kids are staying with and refuse to take complaints, which results in kids getting in all sorts of trouble with embassy needing to interfere. There is not a word about GLBT rights in this document. It’s all about needing to think twice when choosing your travel operator, least your kid gets denied food while abroad in a foreign country.

Russia is a corrupt mess, where courts presume guilt over innocence, the police take bribes as a matter of course, the civil service is corrupt and incompetent, and rich oligarchs play out their battles using everyone else as pawns.

And what do they worry about? Gay families in the UK.

Tell them if they can’t respect our cultural attitudes they are no longer welcome.

Complaints about inappropriate behaviour towards the guest would be approrpiate.

Complaints about the orientation of host families are not appropriate – and if this is the major basis of any complaint the Russian embassy should not progress them, encourage them or (much worse – and which it has done) publicise them.

They are worried about that. The document in question basically tells parents to think hard when choosing the travel operator and obtain all the information concerning accomodation beforehand so as to not have any surprises later. It’s not about gay host families. It’s about not-sp-smart parents making uninformed choices which land their kids in trouble.

A major part of Russia is in Europe. It is not in the EU (although it does seek to influence the EU – partly due to trade).

Russia has made it clear that it does not wish to be subjected to the rules and regulations that are part of the EU process.

Both Russia and Europe see each other as competing entities so far. Europe sees Russian political system as a new edition of authoritarianism (what is true) while Russia is extremely cautious about a prospect of becoming Europe’s new colony, just a source of raw materials.

Russia would not be prepared to cede the amount of sovereignty that would be required for EU membership nor is it prepared to make the human rights adjustments that are a pre requirement for entry.

And I bet ya any money the Russian kids had a great time with the “homosexual families” and loved every second. It was only afterwards that their ignorant parents went loolah. Many times it’s the adults who cause such unnecessary bigotry.

Living and working and Oxford, I can assure officials at the Russian embassy that a large number of the people who TEACH their young nationals here each summer are LGBTs. Do Russian parents have a problem with that or could it be argued that the quality of education we offer contributes to the very reason why they send their sons and daughters to us in countless numbers year on year?

Tell me if there are no homophobic parents in the UK. We have such people, and you do, too.

If the embassy gets complaints from parents then it has to address them. It’s not an official stance or something. It’s complaints from a handful of homophobic parents who were not informed beforehand of the possibility of their kids being placed into a gay host family. The document in question points out that parents should think hard while choosing the travel operator and make all enquiries beforehand. It’s not about gay families. It’s about kids getting into trouble because of their parents’ stupid choices.

Well, this isn’t surprising. Russia is pretty much my neighbor country, and they’ve had a good amount of “negative cultural influence” over here, so I’m a little too familiar with their close-mindedness. I am, however, surprised at how many naive people there are at the Telegraph, praising Russia. Just… What are they thinking..?

Please, correct me if I am wrong, but most of the LGBT people I have known came from families with heterosexual parents. I believe heterosexuality is the leading cause of homosexual children. As such, being a homosexual adult, I would be very willing to house any Russian (pref. art or theatre) college student to prevent them from the evil influences of heterosexuals. I’d even be willing to share the same bed if it will bring greater comfort and security to the student from the rampant nighttime heteroterrorism inflicting the random homosexualism upon their vulnerable students. I’d be willing to make this sacrifice.

Maybe Russians would be better off placing their offspring in the third world and give up their own delusions of being an advanced society. They fool no-one. (Oooo.. cue the ‘bad-comment’ knee jerk-offers!)

Fine, some Russian parents with children in the UK don’t want their children ‘contaminated’ by socialising with gay people. Well, they have an easy solution – take them out of school in the UK and send them to schools in Russia or in any other country they please. It should not have any effect whatsoever on how we British run our society and we must resist attempts to impose ideas from a country with very different ideas (primitive ideas) about how society should be organised. Russians, just like any others have the right how they want to live their lives – if they want to send their kids to school here, then they must accept our ways. It really is that simple.

Children were placed in unsuitable living conditions, experienced rude/coarse treatment in their place of stay, some were refused food. There were cases of children being excluded from school in connection with with insignificant breaking of the routine [presumably = breaking school rules], there are examples of children being placed in the families of homosexuals.

I think, however badly she worded it she did not mean it to sound like that at all and she simply meant that prima facie a gay family is the same and no worse then a heterosexual family – there are of course a few bad homosexual families just as there are a few bad heterosexual families.

Whilst I will say one thing in favour of the Russian embassy statement that *IF* hosts are not feeding guests then that is worrying and needs to be investigated, I do wonder what century the Russian embassy is in with many of its other comments.

I wonder what it construes as minor violations that lead to people being excluded from the summer schools. What do they construe as acceptable behaviour?

However, the rampant homophobia can not be tolerated. The Russian Embassy should (but will not given their own homophobia) on receiving any complaint which is about the orientation of hosts refuse to accept it (unless it is due to inappropriate behaviour towards the guest by the hosts – which although possible is unlikely). Publicising it in this manner is grotesque.

it doesn’t say not fed it says denied food – it could mean denied meat in a vegetarian home, it could mean denied junk food, it could mean denied being overfed with large portions of food. I mean if its someone elses child you don’t want the parents to complain you have made them fat or given them juvenile diabetes.

I know Stu – I didn’t say it shouldn’t be investigated im just pointing out some possible conclusions and it could just be parents defending the bad behaviour of their children and they can be just as bad if not worse – which Im sure you see a lot of in your line of work Stu.

We shouldn’t condemn all of these complaints as false but im sure plenty of them are without warrant.

I’m sure if that had been the allegation this would have been included in the information the Russian embassy released, and that we would be aware of UK police investigations. It would also (arguably – although perhaps the Russians would perhaps not adopt a media statement that was so aware!) not be an issue of orientation, but one of sexual abuse.

Fabulous place Russia, not long back from a fantastic vacation there, Russia is a country with a backbone that stands up to militant homosexuals who break its laws. And I have some photographs of homosexuals getting arrested for this.

Well if your feeling uncomfortable with the level of human rights in this country then the next time you take a vacation to Russia make sure its on a one way ticket! Don’t think that the Russian people will stand for oppression for much longer. Not just homophobia but corrurpt government, russian mafia,fixed national voting and widespread poverty. A melting pot of uprising! The wave of change sweeping across africa and the middle east in on the verge of entering another undemocratic nation!

“But there’s nothing wrong with a gay couple per se, and some of them are among the kindest hosts.” should be “There’s nothing wrong with a gay couple and they can go somewhere else if they don’t like it.”

*Russia* could care less either way about LGBT stuff. What *Russia* cares about is not being told what to do and how to think by outside powers.Russia sees the promotion of LGBT rights as just one more example of western cultural imperialism.

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